Monday, March 22, 2010

Every Monday when I walk into work I bump into these people in the lift, kitchen with whom you can only have small talks. A topic covered in these small talks at work are always weather and weekend. And each time someone asks how was your weekend, I struggle to answer because my weekends are always cooking, dish washing, laundry and grocery shopping and its always that. I try hard to sound excited but most times I have nothing to report and hence no enthusiasm. People would think I am a nerd.

But this Monday, I walked with my head held high ( how high can I get with my 5 feet..) everytime someone asked how was ur weekend ? I said fantastic. I went to the city with my friends, about 15 of us, we had lunch, watched movie, sat around Yarra. By now I am sure half the building has heard my story, oh ! wait the lady in Legal hasn’t heard, should follow her the next time she goes for a coffee to the pantry so I can tell her the story..hehe

Anyway it was an eventful weekend. I have never driven to the city. The farthest is Chappel street. So driving to city itself was fun. To my surprise not just the new bees but most of the moms agreed to join. My car had Anitha, Aruna, Divya and Vidya. The trip started with dramatic crying by junior, who came and sat on aruna’s lap refusing to get off the car. Had to pack bread for feeding ducks and her baby bag in a record time of 2 minutes, handed over to her dad and Arun who offered to take her to see the ducks…well they did not have any choice.When I drove away with a pinch of guilt, exactly 3 minutes later Arun called to confirm baby had forgotten all about me leaving and was just excited about the ducks now..Duh !

Next picks up was Anitha and then Divya. Drive was rather quite until we picked Divya. Needless to say the car was already like a high school field trip bus, the last one to be picked up was Vidya. We did have another drama, this time it wasn’t the junior. It was Prem J, who was in tears while junior stood there checking if her daddy was leaving or not. She did not even notice her mommy leaving.

The fun ride started then – the endless updates were provided by Divya/Vidya and Anitha. Obviously we discussed important issues like who is the key ‘uncle’ of Kollywood, what was actress mantra’s strategic plans for future, what was namitha upto these days, Nityadanda and his accessories ( correctly identified by Anitha) and even mimicry of ‘singa muthu’ by Aruna.We hadn’t stopped laughing and I hadn’t had such a fun filled ride ever – considering driving with hubi who doesn’t even yell at other drivers ! Duh !

Oh ! offcourse we got yelled by another driver, coz I waited in a yellow light, while he thought I should have gone. We found parking and had no idea where we were. Once we got inside Crown, we met well dressed Kavz , ever so pretty Aarti and junior Jai who helped us find the way. When we finally got into santé – met rest of the gang – Jaya, Sharmi and Praba. It was actually fantastic just being there with so many women. Haven’t done that in like 10 years I think.There was free face painting for kids – obviously desi mentality settled in – we all got one for ourselves. ( Free ya kudutha phenoyl kooda kudipom)Anyway Food was good, dessert was awesome. We ate for more than an hour and decided to finish only when it was time for the movie. By now Mitch who was counting the time, was already in front of Crown to pick up An. After An left we went straight to the movies - Alice in Wonderland. Walked in with absolutely no expectations, but the movie was quite good. I hadn’t watched a 3D movie in like 20 years – ‘My dear kuti chathan’ was the last and no need to guess my age..grrrAnyway it was fun, especially sitting next to Divya and Aruna. Divya was trying to catch the butterflies and Aruna was trying to push Alice into the rabbit hole. We took 3 D quite seriously.heheEnd of it, even though we wanted to go to Lydnt café for coffee, we were too full from the lunch. This was probably the first time I have watched a movie without popcorn. So we settled for a cold coffee with the view of Yarra, spoke of all the psychic views of the couples, marriage/love stories etc.Unbelievable but it was 7 pm and Vidya was becoming a bit concerned for the sake of Harshini – not for Prem J. hehe . Sangee was still on her way and none of us were even ready to talk about possible dinner – whatever little spot left was now filled by the thick cold coffee with lots of cream - sorry sangee !We did have a lovely speech by Divya thanking all the ‘seniors’ duh !!! but it was really cute. I felt like I was in uni.Finished the drop offs and came home with Aruna at about 8:00 and the boys ( hubi and Arun) had decided on dinner – Pizza offcourse. Invited Ferni and Divya to join and we all ate the Pizza and we lived happily ever after…too many fairy tales.sorry.

I realised the secret was keeping it simple. All we needed was bunch of open minds ready to be part of game, peace of mind – which again depends on partners who can handle home/kids while we are away and the little sunshine was like the icing on top.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

My little girl is a ‘mini me’ in looks but her attitude is sooo not me. Although I am glad she makes friends easily, not shy and not afraid to try new things..i must say…she has some Attitude..with capital A..

1) Normal day. Not pressure. Nothing to upset her..Me: Baby, can you please turn on the light outsideBaby: No, you do itMe: Please baby, mummy is cooking awesome vegetables for you ( I have give a hype everything I cook to keep her excited about food…sometimes I am stuck with raised eyebrows all evening)Baby: Okay…when I eat the vegetables, I will become a big big girl, then I will never ever ever turn lights on..

2) looking at the insect spray – mummy is this for pissing ants?…what she means is when you spray, it does make the psssng sound…which when you say sounds like pissing ( she doesn’t know the word per say..trust me)

2) Middle of dinnerBaby : Mummy 'my' dint push anyone in day care todayMe: Did you push someone in day care today ?Baby: Noooo ( with a smile)Me: Are you sure ?Baby : Giggling…. I pushed Jordan in the play area todayMe :Whyyyy??? ( eyebrows raised!!)Baby: Because 'my' wanted the bike and he was sitting on it, 'my' pushed him

You go girl…. ( although I thought this, I dint tell her)

4) One fine morningBaby: Mummy I no suck my thumb yesterday, 'my' princess or ugly duckling ?Then found out – Mr. daddy had told her if she sucks her thumb she becomes ugly duckling

5) This is a tough oneBaby: younothalumeeMe: PardonBaby: Younothaaaluuuuu meeeeeeeeI was like..’Me’ puriyudhu..wat else is she saying..after making her repeat a few timesBaby : 'My' saying in Temil…After a while I figured she was saying.. You No ‘thalu’ me – meaning..dont push meduh!!!!

Monday, March 1, 2010

We have seen plenty of movies where they try hard to justify the title of the movie and make the comedian repeat the title of the movie in the climax, so we all know.But Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya is just a beautiful name for such a well presented movie. Every few minutes when the title is repeated as a background score, you know how well it suits the story.

Needless to say ARR’s music – he adds more passion to the story with his songs and music, than anyone else in the movie.

Gautam Menon’s chooses to write screenplay around real life incidences, which makes it more believable, more practical and close to heart for everyone.The story is about a young aspiring director who falls head over heels for this pretty girl. The story runs around the dilemma of every girl in the situation, keeps you anxious as to what would happen to them and finishes in the most believable way. I have seen a few of these in real life.

Gautam always writes his story around a mechanical engineer who ends up doing something completely opposite – which is him offcourse and apparently this is his first love. Man he has few love stories to share – coz I thought Minnale was his and so was Vaaranam Ayiram.

I am not a big fan of Trisha, but she has been so well presented in this movie. Infact she has tried few more expressions in the movie than her usual smile and more smile expressions. Infact she has acted well…or may be I was just concentrating on her costumes, how well dressed she was, that I did not notice her acting too much.

Simbu – hubi’s favourite, has done a fantastic job. His costumes, his subtle acting, his passion, all so fantastic. I actually got reminded of Uyire - the passion, the love but in a more believable screenplay. Way to go Simbhu…mark my word ..hehe

Hubi watched the first day first show was all ‘ gaa gaa gee gee’ about the movie, like any other simbu movie he watches ( he watched silambattam a zillion times and not just for sana khan). Anyway he offered to baby sit so I could watch the movie and inspite of being a big movie critic loved this movie.Watch it once and you will associate yourself with atleast a couple of scenes in the movie..i am sure it has happened to all of us, mottai madi / next door girl, first crush, unforgettable train journey, dilemma , family pressure, what not.